Mac mini 2026
Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors, Slashdot):
With M6, Mac mini now delivers up to 4x faster AI performance, 2x faster storage and graphics, and 40 percent faster CPU performance. Everything on Mac mini with M6 feels incredibly fast, from everyday productivity tasks to agentic AI workflows. Mac mini with M5 Pro delivers even more pro-level performance to breeze through demanding projects, from video production to game development. And this new level of performance takes on business workflows with ease whether Mac mini is being used as a primary desktop or for always-on, deskside agentic computing. Both Mac mini models include Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, as well as upgraded 2.5Gb Ethernet, with a 10Gb option available.
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Mac mini with M6 starts at $899 (U.S.) and $799 (U.S.) for education.
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Mac mini with M5 Pro starts at $1,699 (U.S.) and $1,599 (U.S.) for education.
The M6 tops out at 170GB/s and 32GB of unified memory, whereas the M5 Pro offers 307GB/s and up to 64GB–nearly twice the bandwidth, as well as twice the memory ceiling. That is the number to watch for AI inference, not just CPU and GPU benchmark deltas.
Here’s my attempt to put all of the RAM/SSD configurations into condensed tables, so you can see which storage and memory options are available for each chip, and how much they cost.
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If you configure an M6 Mac Mini with 2 TB of storage, the SSD upgrade ($1,000) costs more than the entire base model computer ($900). So too with the 4 TB SSD upgrade for the M5 Pro Mini ($1,800 upgrade for a $1,700 computer).
Nick:
Almost double (in Canadian dollars) what I paid for my M4 mini 18 months ago.
Previously:
- Apple M6 and M5 Ultra
- Apple Upgrade
- Apple Hardware Price Hikes
- Apple M5 Pro and M5 Max
- Mac mini 2024
Update (2026-08-26): Jason Anthony Guy:
Why announce (and take pre-orders) today, but not ship for a month? Perhaps Apple is using pre-orders to gauge interest and adjust its product mix. With huge prices for memory and storage, Apple does not want to build high-cost configurations that end up sitting around. Or, perhaps the “Fall iPhone” event will be a “new products” event, and Apple is clearing the decks of interesting-but-hardly-important hardware it doesn’t want distracting us from more exciting Macs (like the expected MacBook Pro “Ultra”).
The Mac mini now starts at $899, $300 over the original starting price of the M4 Mac mini when it launched in October 2024.
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The Mac mini and Mac Studio support genlock over USB-C, so there’s no need for a separate sync box. Genlock is used in multi-camera shoots and virtual production to lock timing to a shared reference signal.
Apple’s newly announced M6 and M5 Pro Mac mini models still support up to three external displays, but there’s now support for higher refresh rates, according to Apple’s published technical specifications.
Another interesting tidbit is that even though Apple raised Mac mini prices today, it’s still excluded from Apple Upgrade leasing.
Previously:
Update (2026-08-31): Imthaz Ahamed:
Now after the price hikes, the Neo starts at £699 and the Mini at £899. So to answer the question, is the best feature of the M6 Mini the price?
I don’t think so, and that’s not because of the increased price to £899 but because of the Macbook Neo. The Mac Mini used to be the computer that everyone bought to get a taste of macOS. A lot of my friends have purchased Mac Minis just because it was the cheapest way to get into a Mac. But now I think the Neo fills that role.
The Mac Mini hasn’t become a bad deal. It’s become a different kind of deal. If you already have a monitor and a keyboard, if you want real desktop performance without paying for an Macbook Pro or a Mac Studio, the M6 Mac Mini is still probably the best price-per-performance computer Apple sells.
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The loss of the $450 Mac Mini (and the $600 Neo) is a tragedy.
Raising the performance and baseline stats is nice, but it's overkill to the guy whose 80% workload is Safari / webapps and Office apps.
The trajectory of Apple's hardware is a huge mis-match with their software and most Mom and Dad users. Apple's Local AI story is non-existent (left to pro users to figure out), yet every hardware release hypes Neural performance or AI. How much "Neutral hardware" goes unused by Mom and Dad users (outside of some minor Photos features or background services)?
My point being: cutting out the mostly untouched silicon and focusing on price would be a better route.
I hear what Hanmer is saying… but for the fact that I ‘sold’ a client a Dell Pro 5 Micro last week with an Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 3, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage with an additional USB Type C port, and the MSRP was an EYE-POPPING $2000! They are a 501c3 non-profit, so I called Dell and got them down to just under $1700 with a 3-year onsite warranty. Sooooo… I don’t like the pricing either, buuuut Apple is cheaper than Dell and HP. And Microsoft STILL doesn’t offer a Surface desktop PC.
We’re back to 2012 again in raw terms of Apple “value” vs the PC competition! I only wish Apple would work with Microsoft to run Win11 on Apple silicon. Bootcamp really worked out for them financially the first time, there’s an opportunity here. Ultimately, this client has older workers, they’re already super-anxious over the MS Publisher depreciation, so couldn’t ‘switcher’ them. But many consumers cycling off ancient Windows 10 PCs are just now getting the hint the need to move to Windows 11, and are SHELL-SHOCKED when they see the current PC prices! The ones who aren’t are shell-shocked when they are informed of (or suffer from) the performance issues on the el cheapo big box store sub-$1000 PCs (mostly with 8GB of RAM) that turn out to be not much faster than their 5–7 year old PCs that won’t run Windows 11.
It's nuts that jumping 5-7 years in minimum-tier hardware doesn't yield a much better experience for a Mom and Dad user. I can't point to macOS being much better. Software engineering is such a mismanaged field that software bloat is basically outpacing hardware gains.
I know it's hard out there in componentland but 256 un-upgradeable gigabytes of storage for $900 is a real kick in the teeth. All of this would be so much easier to bear if we could upgrade these machines like we once so easily could.
M5 Pro model is tempting, always tempting. Main reason is CPU core count and performance for my predominantly "server" and VM workload. But the big-little arrangement is much less pronounced here, so let's see what the power draw numbers tell us when people get their hands on it.
The other interesting detail is the inclusion of the Thread radio due to the N1. Does this potentially portend a future of a Mac Mini as a real "Home hub" and Thread border router option that's Ethernet-connected and actually fit-for-purpose? Because that would be a serious reason for upgrading.
